For a number of years, lipases have been used as detergent enzymes to remove lipid or fatty stains from clothes and other textiles (EP 258 068 and EP 305 216). Patent publications WO 92/05249, WO 94/25577, WO 95/22615, WO 97/04079 and WO 97/07202 disclose variants of the H. lanuginosa lipase having improved properties for detergent purposes. Thus, WO 97/04079 discloses variants having a peptide addition (extension) at the N-terminal and/or the C-terminal. WO 97/07202 discloses lipase variants with “first wash performance” which are capable of removing substantial amounts of lard from a lard stained swatch in a one-cycle wash.
However, there is an ever existing need for providing novel lipases with improved washing properties in a variety of commercial detergents. The present invention relates to such novel lipases.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide polypeptides having lipase activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. This new lipase shows performance similar to a known lipase (SEQ ID NO: 12) at pH 9 in the absence of detergent, and shows washing performance in the form of a wild-type.